Author Topic: Some authors I recommend for Old West fiction...  (Read 27288 times)

Offline Forty Rod

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Re: Some authors I recommend for Old West fiction...
« Reply #20 on: April 23, 2013, 03:50:24 PM »
Jimmy, that's gonna depend on me gettin' off my lazy butt (Helluva a great name for a ranch.  Wonder what the brand would look like.) an' actually working on them again.
People like me are the reason people like you have the right to bitch about people like me.

Offline Johnny McCrae

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Re: Some authors I recommend for Old West fiction...
« Reply #21 on: April 23, 2013, 07:35:22 PM »
I also just finished reading "Cavanaugh: The Last Bounty" and thoroughly enjoyed it. Forty Rod, you certainly can be proud  of "Cavanaugh: The Last Bounty". As I said, this book is as good as they come. I'm looking forward to reading "Legend"
You need to learn to like all the little everday things like a sip of good whiskey, a soft bed, a glass of buttermilk,  and a feisty old gentleman like myself

Offline Grapevine Jimmy

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Re: Some authors I recommend for Old West fiction...
« Reply #22 on: April 29, 2013, 08:47:29 AM »
FR, I think I enjoyed "Legends" as much as any novel I've recently read. I really enjoyed to details of NYC schooling for a young lady of the period. Thanks for your time and effort putting all of this together.

GJ
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Re: Some authors I recommend for Old West fiction...
« Reply #23 on: Today at 07:33:31 PM »

Offline Forty Rod

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Re: Some authors I recommend for Old West fiction...
« Reply #23 on: April 29, 2013, 08:51:28 AM »
FR, I think I enjoyed "Legends" as much as any novel I've recently read. I really enjoyed to details of NYC schooling for a young lady of the period. Thanks for your time and effort putting all of this together.

GJ

You just made my week, Jimmy.  Thanks.  ;D
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Offline J.B. Justice

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Re: Some authors I recommend for Old West fiction...
« Reply #24 on: May 23, 2013, 09:43:44 AM »
Forty Rod I just found your books on Amazon and plan on getting them for my Kindle  :)

I enjoy the western novels by Robert B. Parker. I find following the adventures of Virgil Cole and Everett Hitch to be a great escape.

Offline Flea Skinner

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Re: Some authors I recommend for Old West fiction...
« Reply #25 on: September 05, 2013, 03:25:23 PM »
Hey Forty Rod!  Just finished reading "Cavanaugh" on my Kindle.  Thoroughly enjoyed it!! Thanks for taking the time to put pen to paper!

Offline The Trinity Kid

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Re: Some authors I recommend for Old West fiction...
« Reply #26 on: November 17, 2013, 06:32:24 PM »
Hey Forty Rod.  I finished both of your books in three days.   ;D ;D  I loved 'em both.  Even started reading Legends a second time over breakfast. ;D  I think I have a new favorite. ::) 
Some people write, and reading it seems like, well......just reading.  Others, their stories actually seem real to the reader.  These are the latter. 
You gave me some encouragement to get back working on my book.

--TK
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Offline PABLO DEL NORTE

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Re: Some authors I recommend for Old West fiction...
« Reply #27 on: December 18, 2013, 07:51:52 AM »
 ??? NO WILLIAM JOHNSTONE??  HE HAS TWO GOOD SERIES GOING ON- "THE BROTHERS O'BRIEN" & "SIXKILLER"- NOT TO MENTION THE SMOKE JENSEN BOOKS. ANY LOUIS L'AMOUR IS GOOD.

MR. FORTY ROD, I WILL LOOK UP YOUR BOOKS & READ THEM. :)

Offline Octagonal Barrel

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Re: Some authors I recommend for Old West fiction...
« Reply #28 on: December 18, 2013, 10:27:30 PM »
Forty Rod, I'd love to read your work, and will when I find it in a format suitable to my e-reader.

As to old west authors/books, I'll offer 3:

Charles Portis, "True Grit."  Supposedly, Portis was an absolute master of the language and culture of the times.  Fiction, but with a very historical underlay.  The best book I've read for a long time.  They call it an epic for a reason.  (I think the Cohen brothers movie captured it well.  If you liked the movie, the book is the same on steriods.)

Owen Wister, "The Virginian, a Horseman of the Plains."  Only recently turned on to this by a comment in a video on this forum from Bottom Dealin' Mike.  There are moments it's merely a good novel.  There are moments I think the language waxes to greatness.  In my opinion, it never sinks to simply average.  I trust its spirit is accurate to the old west.

Zane Grey, "The Last of the Plainsmen."  In the first few pages, I thought the writing a little hokey, and maybe bad.  After studying anthropology in school, I thought the initial Native American dialogue at the beginning of the book an atrocious characature.  ("How," "Ugh," bad broken English, how terrible!)  But after getting into the book further, and asking myself was there a real "Buffalo Jones" and doing some research, I was surprised to find "Last of the Plainsmen" is cataloged as non-fiction.  In 1907, Grey contracted with the real Buffalo Jones to go cougar hunting with a rope, not a gun.  Grey actually took careful notes on the conversations and antics of the plainsmen who were with him.  The tarantula story and the bit about the snake practical joke are probably real.  So is the story of Jones' travels in the north.  The book is a history of Grey's real expedition as well as a historical novel.  I'm a back-country guy myself, and the realization of its historicity transformed my respect for the account.  Now I love the book.  (But I'd NEVER choose to go rope a cougar...)

You probably knew about these ones already.
Drew Early, SASS #98534

Offline Forty Rod

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Re: Some authors I recommend for Old West fiction...
« Reply #29 on: December 19, 2013, 10:07:00 AM »
You can order then from Barnes and Noble or Amazon.  They should both be available on Kindle by the first of January at the latest.  If necessary, contact AuthorHouse Publications or I still have a few copies here.

Let me know.

When can I expect to see your book, TK?  I'll be wanting to buy an autographed copy when it's available.
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Offline The Trinity Kid

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Re: Some authors I recommend for Old West fiction...
« Reply #30 on: December 19, 2013, 04:06:22 PM »
Forty Rod:  I hope to get it out sometime next year........just not sure when.... ::)

--TK
"Nobody who has not been up in the sky on a glorious morning can possibly imagine the way a pilot feels in free heaven." William T. Piper


   I was told recently that I'm "livelier than a one-legged man at a butt-kicking contest."    Is that an insult or a compliment?

Offline Forty Rod

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Re: Some authors I recommend for Old West fiction...
« Reply #31 on: December 19, 2013, 06:23:10 PM »
My next one has been due to be released for over five years now.   ::)

I'm working on it, I'm working on it!!!
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Offline The Trinity Kid

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Re: Some authors I recommend for Old West fiction...
« Reply #32 on: December 19, 2013, 07:51:54 PM »
I started mine three years ago, in September.  You know how it goes, though.  Write, write, write.....oops, found an inconsistency, rewrite....repeat, and repeat again.    I'm about half way done, I think, and hope to get it to a publisher sometime around July-August. :-\

--TK
"Nobody who has not been up in the sky on a glorious morning can possibly imagine the way a pilot feels in free heaven." William T. Piper


   I was told recently that I'm "livelier than a one-legged man at a butt-kicking contest."    Is that an insult or a compliment?

Offline Coal Creek Griff

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Re: Some authors I recommend for Old West fiction...
« Reply #33 on: December 19, 2013, 10:08:56 PM »
Octagonal Barrel:

I absolutely agree with your love for "True Grit" and "The Virginian"!  Those are two of my all time favorite books.  With "True Grit", I have been known to read the last page, then turn back to the first page and start over again.  I've done that more than once.  I also bought the audio version read by Donna Tartt.  Her personal essay at the end makes you love the book that much better.  Her Mississippi accent just adds to the story.

"The Virginian" is another one I've read over and over.  I love to read it out loud and I bought an audio version of that too.  It made me start to read a number of Owen Wister's books, some of which are short stories "starring" some of the characters from "The Virginian".

I keep reading Zane Grey books, thinking that I should like them, but so far I have not really enjoyed any of them.  I wish I did.  I love reading good western books and he wrote a lot.  Oh well, maybe I'll just read "True Grit" again.  I don't have an e-reader, so that kind of limits things.

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Offline Fredcdobbs

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Re: Some authors I recommend for Old West fiction...
« Reply #34 on: December 20, 2013, 12:23:00 AM »
The last Robt. B Parker book about the railroad robbery was not written by him but someone copying his style. His unfortunate death has left a big loss. The attempt to copy his dialog style was without Parker's sly wit and humor. The book fell flat for me.
I got a book of Elmore Leonard's early western short stories that he wrote out of college for True West magazine. They were great. So fresh and original, amazed me. An early indication of his talent.
Loren Estleman is another good western writer. He's always interesting. I've read his westerns and detective stories. One of the few authors who can make me laugh out loud at some witticism.
j

Offline jimbobborg

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Re: Some authors I recommend for Old West fiction...
« Reply #35 on: March 02, 2014, 06:15:06 PM »
None of you have mentioned Clarence E. Mulford?  Aside from the fact that most, if not all, of his books are out of print, he is the original creator of one "Hopalong" Cassidy.  I managed to snag five of his books in hard back from Borders many years ago.  They are available now in e-book format.  The character in the movies and TV series is nothing like the original.

Offline The Trinity Kid

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Re: Some authors I recommend for Old West fiction...
« Reply #36 on: March 02, 2014, 09:02:39 PM »
Movie Hopalong is nothing like old book Hoppy.  L'Amour Hoppy was originally more like old Hoppy, but editors made him more like movie Hoppy.

Confusing...  :o ;)

--TK
"Nobody who has not been up in the sky on a glorious morning can possibly imagine the way a pilot feels in free heaven." William T. Piper


   I was told recently that I'm "livelier than a one-legged man at a butt-kicking contest."    Is that an insult or a compliment?

Offline Octagonal Barrel

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Re: Some authors I recommend for Old West fiction...
« Reply #37 on: March 03, 2014, 03:09:06 AM »
Cormac McCarthy - "Blood Meridian." A modern classic and the hardest-a$$ed western ever written. Takes a strong stomach and no illusions about how nice our ancestors were.
I recently started to read "Blood Meridian."  I liked "The Road," and figured I'd like a western by the same guy real well.  But I'm stumbling over some of it.

"The Road" is terse in it's style, and "Blood Meridian" is anything but.  I'm personally having trouble with McCarthy's verbose description, which feels like it waffles back and forth between Victorian American English and modern American English.  (I like his dialogue and story advancement in Blood Meridian just fine.)  Some places, it feels to me like he's got word usage wrong in ways that distract me.  I'm also struggling with the way he creates mental images with his words.  The images feel surreal enough that for me, they just don't ring true and distract me from the advancement of characterization and story line.

I'd certainly agree it's a hard-edged story, and you can entertain no illusions of western civility in reading it.  But am I missing something?  I take it for a surreal western novel, maybe McCarthy's take on a "spaghetti western novel," and maybe that's why I'm choking over it.  I have a hard time with some movies that get too surreal, too.  Other opinions or observations on "Blood Meridian?"  In art it's certainly true that one man's pleasure is another man's poison, and I hope not to bash the opinions of others if I share my own struggling with the book.  If you've read it and liked it, what did you like?
Drew Early, SASS #98534

Offline Shawnee McGrutt

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Re: Some authors I recommend for Old West fiction...
« Reply #38 on: March 03, 2014, 07:07:35 AM »
Glad to know I wasn't the only one who had trouble reading "Blood Meridian", Octagonal Barrel, you hit the nail on the head(at least for me).  The dialogue  and progression of the story are good.  It was the bouncing back and forth, in the style of  writing , I  felt like a Ping pong ball being slapped around.  A spaghetti western novel, is a good description .  I didn't make it through even a quarter of the book.  I'll have to try it again.
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Offline The Elderly Kid

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Re: Some authors I recommend for Old West fiction...
« Reply #39 on: March 03, 2014, 11:43:37 AM »
In "Blood Meridian" McCarthy wrote deliberately in a Melvillian style. It's a western version of Moby Dick, in which a group of men set out on a crazy quest that ends up destroying them all. The language and imagery are taken from Melville, as are the shifting points of view and frequent digressions. It's there right from the first line. Moby Dick opens with the most famous first line in American literature: "Call me Ishmael."  The first line of "Blood Meridian" is: "See the child." Both are three-word imperative sentences. It goes on from there. The monstrous character of the Judge is Ahab and Moby Dick combined. Not to everyone's taste, to be sure, but an amazing achievement. McCarthy's descriptions of landscapes are classic as well.

 

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